Ukrainians are cornered. Either they sacrifice themselves on the battlefield or they will be massacred while under Russian occupation. Most prefer to fight until the end rather than suffer under occupation. This is the reason Ukraine will win, because it has no other choice.
Those who propose "peace" at the price of cutting Ukraine in pieces have not understood anything. A "peace" with Russia is nothing more than a battle pause and the war will continue for those who will get killed by the occupiers. Ukrainians will fight until they are free.
Those who say that a smaller country cannot win against a nuclear power should read up on the wars in Afghanistan and Vietnam. Peoples who are willing to sacrifice everything for victory cannot be beaten unless they are annihilated.
To get a quick end to the war the West only has one choice - to support Ukraine with massive amounts of weapons. For Russia the only sane option is to pull back immediately - which of course is not going to happen.
Not only Russia will lose the war against Ukraine. Those who appeased Russia will also lose, because their standings will be in tatters. In Ukraine there will be many heroes who never die, too many for anybody to ever forget and too many for anybody to ever forgive.
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Merkel's attempt to whitewash herself must not succeed. She has an enormous responsibility for why Germany is not capable of dealing with Russia now, and of course for not protecting peace. There is a campaign among politicians in Europe to deflect blame now, it must fail.
Merkel's nonsense can be cut to pieces by one simple question: Why did she endorse NordStream2? Merkel fought hard for NordStream2 as late as last summer. That alone shows her position and her complicity.
Schröder, Steinmeier, Sigmar Gabriel, Merkel and others are out to save their legacies now. That project must not succeed. We must be clear about who in Europe set the stage for Russian aggression, and the ones mentioned above are at the top of the list.
The fight for Severodonetsk is a Russian info operation in the form of a battle. The main purposes is to create the impression that Russia is strong and can win. That's false. The Russian military is increasingly a spent force.
By @criticalthreats aei.org/op-eds/the-new…
@criticalthreats If Ukrainians can weather the current Russian storm and then counterattack the exhausted Russian forces they still have every chance to free their people and all their land.
@criticalthreats This is a test of wills. It's an enormous tragedy that Ukrainian soldiers and civilians will suffer and die but if Ukraine has the will to endure there is a light in the tunnel, the opportunity to win the war.
Imagine if the German government, especially @Bundeskanzler, hadn't constantly sabotaged efforts to counter Russian aggression. Then Russia could have been pushed out of Ukraine already.
But a large part of the blame also falls on those German politicians who are not forcing Scholz out of the office. This is not the time to give passive support for Russia.
If Germany pushed harder against Russia many smaller countries would follow its lead and also push harder. Could Orban stand hard German pressure for example? I don't think so.
Somewhat contradictory tweets on France by me this morning, see below. Maybe the conclusion is that France tries to maintain balance in Ukraine and when Russia is advancing it sends more arms to Ukraine? When the parties are worn out France can step in to mediate a "peace".
Just like Germany it appears France doesn't want neither Russia or Ukraine to win. Instead they want a return to February 24th and then back to business as usual.
But talking Putin into accepting his actions where stupid is not going to succeed. Russia can also never be trusted to hold any agreement. Any "peace" will in reality just be a ceasefire followed by a renewed Russian offensive.
Several reports about a Ukrainian counter offensive in Sievierodonetsk coming in. The Ukrainian Armed Forces want close contact with the enemy to inflict maximum casualties while depriving the enemy his air and artillery superiority.
No European country has done more damage to European security than Germany over the last 30 years so of course Germany has to absorb blame for the war, not as the aggressor but as chief enabler. It's obvious that peace in Europe wasn't an objective for German foreign policy.
The German romance with Putin started when he gave that speech in the Bundestag in 2001. Then he had already erased Grozny so it was well known what kind of man Putin was then. The German politicians let themselves be duped by Putin though and so it continued.
Then, despite protests and warnings from Eastern Europe Germany builds Nord Stream 1, a pipeline that not only would deprive the poorer countries of income but also take away one of the few leverages they had over Russia.